Office of the President | Music-Maker Case Studies

Roger H. Brown and Nick Susi

“As president of Berklee, I feel an obligation to help our students understand pathways they might take to find audiences and sustainable careers as musicians. Working with Nick, a talented music business/management major, has been an interesting education for me; thanks to him, I know many new bands I never would have heard of otherwise!”

– Roger H. Brown

The Music-Maker Case Study series analyzed emerging artists and the key strategies and tools they utilized to break into the music industry. The shifting industry challenges artists to adopt a new perspective on their relationships with labels, their management team, other artists, and their fans. These case studies took an in-depth look into each artist’s unique career trajectory, including the difficulties encountered and lessons learned.

Berklee student Nick Susi and president Roger H. Brown selected bands and artists whose experiences seemed to provide lessons for current students and recent graduates.

Connecticut native Nick Susi is a multi-instrumentalist raised by two music teacher parents. He has contributed as an editor to Berklee’s publication the Music Business Journal and served as marketing supervisor the Red Room performance venue at Berklee's Cafe 939. He spoke at the 2012 Rethink Music Conference.

Roger H. Brown has been Berklee’s president since 2004 and has led the college through a period of dynamic change and evolution. He launched the college’s first-ever capital campaign in 2007 and gained approval from the city to build a new 16-story Berklee building, which opened at 160 Massachusetts Avenue in January 2014. Prior to working at Berklee, he founded with his wife Linda Mason a corporation valued at more than $1 billion, administered humanitarian operations in Southeast Asia and Africa, and played recording sessions as a drummer in New York.